Star Fox: Hope Like Ice
by XxSanitariumxX
Summary: The retelling of the epic story of two people who want nothing more than to kill the other, but are forced to rely on each other to stay alive. A human named Raye and a lynx named Miyu must set aside their hatred and work together but their hatred for each other keeps them at each others throats.
1. Stranded

_**AUTHOR'S NOTES~~~ Alright, here it is everyone, the retelling of the Hell series. Now I know some of you are worried that the original will now be forgotten, but that's not the case. Please note that this is NOT just a copy and paste of the original, there will be more and new content, and revised content as well. The original was first made way back when I first started out, and now I want to go back and George Lucas it, but in a good way, I swear. This is the pilot and should shape your final opinion on the remake. **_

_**The poll has been remade and showed that the majority wanted this more than didn't. Thank you everyone who has voted!**_

_**Also, there's a video I want you all to go check out on Youtube. It's a great song composed by Kiochi that was inspired by the Hell series. The link is on my profile page because FF will cut it, so go get to it or I'll start killing characters in all my stories like George R. R. Martin!**_

_**~X~X~X~X~X~X~**_

The cold air entered the man's lungs, chilling him and dropping his core temperature with every breath. He could hear his slow and deep breaths and it was the first thing he heard that wasn't a high pitched ringing. His body still wasn't moving, no matter how much he tried to get it to respond. Ever since the crash he'd been trapped in a limbo of waking up, realizing he was alive only to slip back into unconsciousness.

Every time he came back the cold of this world stung him again, and the winds brushed against his already dry face. He ran his tongue across his lips and noticed how dry and chapped they were.

"Aw fu- ah!" He groaned when the moving of his lips caused them to crack open and bleed in three spots on his bottom lip.

The blood from his lip was warm but was cooled and froze in three little streams running down his chin.

'_It's so cold. I… I'm gonna die here.'_ He thought with a morbid realization. _'I have to move… I have to get down!'_

Slowly his arms and hands came back to him and he managed to take hold of the safety harness of his chair. His numb and unresponsive fingers were trembling on their own, making it a living Hell to simply pinch the three clips that held the harness together. It was like taking control of a small infant's body. The cold made him so uncoordinated and slow it frustrated the man to no end. Yet when one clip finally came off it felt like he had achieved something no man had ever hoped to accomplish. His right side leaned forward a bit but it gave him a morale boost and sure enough the next two clips came off, but at a price.

The man fell, something he was not expecting, and landed hard on a jagged rock that tore into his flesh and his leg made a strange and gross snapping sound when it hit. He let out a loud scream that tore apart the silence of the landscape. Every curse in every language he knew passed through his cracked lips until he regained the sense of mind to quiet himself.

"Jesus… fucking… god damn it!" He panted under his breath and decided to check his leg.

The sharp rock had torn through both his dark green flight suit and now his left calf was spurting blood, but that wasn't the worst part. He heard a snapping sound and his leg hurt so much that he figured it must be broken. His survival training had started to kick in and already his chances were looking grim. With his leg possibly broken and losing blood, his chances of survival were greatly diminished. Just for starters, his ability to be mobile was decreased, predators would be able to catch wind of his blood, and his medical supplies were in the remains of his F-46B Lancer.

The man winced in pain as he tested his leg. He couldn't feel where his bone was broken but it hurt too much to search in-depth. Slowly and very carefully, the man got to his feet making sure to keep any unnecessary weight off his left leg so it wouldn't cause any more pain. He braced himself against a rock and slowly shifted more weight on his left leg little by little. The pain was intense but not bad enough to make him still think that it was broken. Relief flushed through him and he took a few hobbling steps without all that much pain.

'_Guess it's not broken after all, maybe sprained or fractured.'_ He thought optimistically until he looked around.

All around him there was nothing but white, black, and grey. There was no color to be found, no greens, no reds, no yellows, and especially no blue. The white snow blanketed the ground and only black rocks tall enough to stand out from the mid shin high snow were visible. But the worst part was the sky, which was a deep darkened gray that looked over him. It was a dark and cruel world, a bitter Hell for him to live out the rest of his days if help did not arrive.

'_They'll come. No soldier gets left behind.'_ The man thought to himself with a small glimmer of hope. _'I can wait if I need to, I can survive this Hellish nightmare for as long as it takes. I won't die here.'_

A small trail of smoke was visible almost half a mile away. It was the only thing that he could see and hopefully it was the downed remains of his Lancer but it was impossible to tell. In his Lancer there was a medical kit, a small carbine rifle, and a small compact bedroll that would all increase his chances of surviving drastically.

'_If I can get my supplies I can set up camp, shelter, and hunt any game… if there is any. All I have to worry about is that Cornerian that went down with me, if it survived that is.'_

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

The lynx sniffed the air but the cold tickled her nose causing her to sneeze. The cold was unbearable for her. Even her fur, flight jacket and pants weren't holding back the cold. She couldn't stand it, her body was shaking and her fingers were losing feeling. Her home planet had never gotten this cold, not even on the coldest day of winter on the furthest side from the sun.

She pulled her gray flight jacket closer to her, shivering and letting off a pitiful mew. The lynx cursed her luck, she cursed the planet she was now stranded on, but mainly she cursed the entire human race for her suffering. If it weren't for the humans, there wouldn't be a war, she wouldn't be here, and she'd be back on her home planet living a normal life.

"Damn it!" The lynx shouted when she dropped her supplies into the snow, all of it sinking deep down out of sight. She let off several more curses in her alien language as she got down on her knees and began sifting through the foot and a half deep snow. The feline's hands were burning from being so cold before it all, and her small medical bag, blaster, cutting knife, two days' worth of rations, and thin summer blanket were covered in snow.

Feeling even more miserable, the lynx trekked on towards the smoke off in the distance. She figured the human had died on impact and she needed to get to its ship for the supplies and hopefully use the communications system if it wasn't broken like hers.

She was on her last leg. If she couldn't send out a hail for help she knew she would die here. The lynx was never trained to survive on a planet as cold and harsh as this, in fact, she was hardly trained how to survive on her own at all. All she knew how to do was hunt but even then she never skinned an animal before.

Things looked dark, and the weight of this cruel world was weighing heavily on her but she pressed on. There was still hope, a hope like ice; only a fool would cling to it but the lynx wanted desperately to live, so cling she would.

To pass the time she thought of better times. Times with her family and friends on the sandy shores of her beautiful home planet Zoness, where there were more islands than a person could count, and the weather was always so bright and sunny. Thinking of the warm sand between her toes, the sea breeze in her fur, and the sun casting a loving heat on her did well to keep the thought of freezing to death at bay. But the Hell she now lived in would not let her escape so easily, and threw up bitter and cruel winds to bring her falling back down to reality.

"I hate this. I hate this and I hate those damn humans!" She vented, letting fly her good senses even though a dangerous human may be lurking behind any rock right now. Remembering the gravity of the situation, the lynx quieted herself and let her keen senses take over.

She sniffed the air, listened to quiet landscape, and looked allover for any signs of danger. She remained eerily still, like a cat about to pounce a crippled bird. As time went on however, she did not hear, see, or smell anything she already didn't. She could still only smell the smoke from the human Lancer, see the same lifeless landscape, and hear that eerie silence that was unnerving her more than the foul language the humans spoke.

Sighing to herself, the lynx continued on now that she was sure she was still safe.

The walk to the downed Lancer was arduous and was only made longer as she was trying to be as quiet and stealthy as possible. When she made it however, she once again used her senses to survey the area for danger. Many smells assaulted her twitching pink nose, even the faint smell of human but it wasn't fresh. Still, she walked towards the cockpit cautiously, praying that she'd find the mangled corpse of the human still there.

"Damn it." She swore when she saw that there was no seat in the cockpit. "It's probably still out there, waiting, watching." She said aloud while scanning the area, a sense of fear reaching around her heart making way for the cold to once again reaffirm its grip as well.

'_What am I saying? I can't psyche myself out now. If it _is _out there, it's probably wounded and dying. Still. I have to be careful. I can't have it sneaking up on me.'_ The lynx thought as she climbed into the cockpit

To her relief she found a human rifle, more medical supplies, and a bedroll. Her first instinct was to take it all and run, run as far away as she could and wait the human out. It'd eventually freeze or starve to death but during that time her comrades might lose hope in finding her. She had to hack the human's com systems so she could get a signal out before it was too late.

The lynx took one more look around before she opened up her wrist-com and set to work.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

The human tensed and stopped moving. He was sure he had heard screaming but it wasn't human in nature. It sounded more like Cornerian, possibly feline. His heart began to quicken until it was pounding in his ears. It could have just been in his head but his luck had not been holding up at all that day. If the Cornerian was still alive and it reached his ship before he did he was in deep trouble. The Cornerian had his ship, his supplies, and his only weapon.

'_God damn Cornerians. Worse than animals and always taking things that don't belong to them.'_ He thought while ducking behind a rock. The man peeked out from behind the rock and could see his ship still smoldering a little but also mostly intact. He couldn't see any movement or Cornerians so he deemed it safe enough to get a little closer.

Slowly, and as quietly as he could, the man moved from rock to rock until he was just a stone's throw away from his beloved Lancer. He hated seeing the beloved war machine in such a terrible state.

The Lancer was the backbone of the human's space and aviation fighters. It was fast, highly maneuverable, and packed incredibly powerful rockets that could punch through the shields of a Cornerian fighter in one shot. Unlike the Cornerian fighters, they did not have shields which made them vulnerable to laser fire, but any seasoned veteran could outfly and outrun a Cornerian fighter.

At least most of the time.

They had fought for what felt like hours. A Cornerian fighter and a human Lancer danced a dizzying waltz of maneuvering and death. If either slipped up once the other would take advantage and dispose of their opponent without a second's hesitation. The two had separated from their squadrons in their dance of attrition so they were overlooked as the larger battle raged on without them. After almost an hour of trying to gain the upper hand, they wound up breaking apart before flying head on at each other. His radar sensors were damaged so he couldn't see her coming at him, but when he did and fired a rocket at the craft it was already too late. The aft of his Lancer was torn to shreds and the rocket overshot the Cornerian fighter before rounding back and dealing the same amount of damage. Both crafts were disabled and were left to lazily towards the icy planet, desperately trying to call out for help.

The man grit his teeth and spat at the ground, the spit freezing before it even touched the ground.

'_If I get my hands on that bastard I'll make myself a new bedroll out of its fur!'_ He thought to himself and crept a little closer to the Lancer.

He was approaching from the aft end and couldn't see the cockpit yet, but when he rounded behind his heart nearly stopped beating. He could see it; a filthy Cornerian animal in his Lancer doing God knows what. The sight of live Cornerian brought a new warmth into his body, a warmth fueled by hatred and anger. The only Cornerians he liked were the dead ones; the good news though was he was about to add this one to his friend list.

Slowly, and with his life hanging in the balance with every step, he slowly inched towards the cockpit, being absolutely sure that he only moved every so often so not to alert the feline. He was unarmed but he still had the element of surprise and he could overpower the feline if he got close enough. His heart was beating so hard he was worried that the Cornerian might hear, but it hadn't already, not even when he was just a few feet away. It was so close that he could almost reach the feline, but as his luck would have it, a shift in the winds brought his scent and the smell of his blood straight into the Cornerian's nose.

The lynx immediately looked up while at the same time going for her blaster, but the human was quicker. He quickly leaped forward and reached in before ripping the lynx out of the cockpit. He pulled a fist back to bring it right down on its face but the lynx lashed out with a kick to his stomach. The man let out a wheeze but that wouldn't stop him. He grabbed the leg and punched it right in the thigh using only his knuckles causing her to scream in pain.

The Cornerian still went for her blaster but the human jumped on top of her and moved to punch her. She threw up her arms and covered her face, blocking the blow but creating a vicious bruise on her left arm from the brute strength of the human. She growled but wouldn't give in and she lashed out with her claws, cutting his green flight suit just above the black placard with golden thread that read Raye Belial, Captain, EMASC.

Raye pulled back and the lynx took advantage of him being off balance and lunged her upper body forward, tackling him and turning the tables into her favor. She drew her claws and immediately went for the throat, managing to knick him just in front of the left jugular. Raye quickly grabbed her hands by the wrists, stopping her from trying that again but started a very aggressive and hateful wrestling match. Both sides vied for dominance and to get enough advantage to get a good shot in but they were evenly matched. He may have been stronger but she had the advantage being on top.

"Fucking animal!" They shouted at each other simultaneously in their own native tongues.

The human quickly hatched a plan and pulled the lynx's right hand towards her left, surprising her as she was trying to resist him by going that way to begin with. Once she was off balanced he managed to throw her off and once again wound up on top, if only for a second. The lynx immediately brought her knee up just as he was crawling on top, and hit him right where he was most vulnerable. He let out a sharp yell and the lynx grinned evilly to herself before kneeing him there again. Not wanting to get it a third time, the human rolled off and away from the lynx.

Both of them got to their feet, though Raye got to his a little slower and was hunched over in pain. He tried to straighten himself but his left leg shook and caused him to fall slightly. The lynx chuckled and reached for her blaster but found that it had fallen off somewhere during the fight. Instead she put up her fists with as much confidence as she would a gun.

"Well alright then human, come get some more." She taunted him and even though there was a language barrier Raye knew she was taunting him.

Still, he wasn't one to rush blindly into action. He quickly surveyed the feline. It was shorter than him and for some reason just looking at its cocky face he could tell it was female. Her body wasn't discernible as it was wearing very thick flight gear that hid her muscle sizes and feminine physique. One thing he hated to admit about her was she was a lot more dangerous than he gave her credit for before. She knew about his weaknesses, both his leg and the space between his legs, and she had already proven herself a scrappy fighter.

He slowly advanced on her, his fists up and ready to block any attacks but she remained still and calm. It seemed she was ready, eager for him to make the first move so she could counter. Raye made a small twitch in his arm and she readied herself to block it. Raye moved his good leg and she moved to block a kick.

'_Fucking animal. Just hoping I'll run in blind so you can cut me off.'_ The man thought as he reweighed his chances.

Normally he'd be able to take a Cornerian in hand-to-hand combat, but this was a very different and dangerous Cornerian. It was obvious just from her stance and fighting style she'd been in several fights. She'd exploit every one of his weaknesses and fight with tooth and claw if she had to.

'_If I could just get a clean shot I could take her down easily… but I can't get close enough. Damn snow, it's clinging to my boots and making it hard to mo-'_

As soon as the idea came to mind, the man set it in motion. He let out a very strong kick, but it came nowhere close to the lynx. Instead, the kick sent up a large pile of snow that splashed into her face and eyes. Momentarily distracted, she was left wide open and the human took the advantage.

Raye threw his fist into her gut, causing the wind to rush out of the lynx and pain to rush in. She let off a small mew just before the man's strong hands wrapped around her throat. Just as she could feel herself being choked, she was lifted off her feet into the air but then slammed down hard into the ground.

The lynx could barely move, only roll slightly while letting off small mews of pain. Her hands were on her sore throat and tears were welling up in her eyes. It was a sad sight to see, one that struck a chord with the battle hardened veteran.

Normally, killing Cornerians was one of his most favorite things to do. It was especially easy to do since he neither considered Cornerians to be people or able to have real feelings. Yet as he watched the Cornerian lynx wallow in pain and small tears stream down her face, the man could feel no pride or accomplishment taking her down.

"Poor beast… might as well put you out of your misery." He sighed.

"You bastard!" She choked out.

Her back hurt so badly, especially in one spot where she landed the hardest, that she could hardly manage to roll onto her stomach. The lynx tried to get up but her body was failing her thanks to being air deprived. Her efforts became desperate however when she saw the human in its Lancer, pulling out his weapon.

'_No. NO!' _ The lynx thought anxiously to herself when he started loading a magazine with bullets. _'Come on, Miyu! Get up, get up!'_

Miyu's arms reached out and she started to push herself up but her left hand slipped when the ground gave out and slid away. She swore to herself and looked to see why when her eyes grew wide. Quickly the lynx scrambled to her weapon just as the human had loaded a mag into his rifle.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty." He said walking over towards the franticly crawling feline.

Raye lifted the rifle up to his face and peered through the 8x scope. He didn't want her to suffer any more so he was taking his time, lining up the shot with the back of her head but she would not give him a clear shot.

"Sorry about this, sweetheart, but this Hell hole is bad enough without you on it." He said as his finger began to squeeze the trigger.

"Time to make this place a little more bearable, skinner." The lynx said as she took hold of the blaster and spun around.

Bang.

BANG.

A red bolt of energy and a .308 caliber round sailed through the freezing cold air. Both of the projectiles penetrated their targets and both Raye and Miyu fell to the ground in pain and screaming. The lynx's snapshot had nearly been fatal, hitting the Raye just inches from the heart while the human's act of mercy wound up missing the mark entirely and caused even more pain by hitting her in the lower abdomen.

Blood began to poor into the snow and the scent was quickly spreading, in moments the planet's predators would home in on it and investigate.

Raye looked at his wound and began to curse again. Now, both his left leg _and_ arm were barely better than useless. He tried moving his arm but it was sore and made his laser wound hurt and bleed more. He looked to the Cornerian and saw that she too was incapacitated and tending to her wound.

He went for his gun that was in the snow next to him but then the cold hit him again and he noticed just how much darker it had been getting. Nightfall was coming and there was no way he'd be able to survive the night on his own. Already the cold was getting worse; freezing the blood solid to the front of his flight suit. His eyes were heavily burdened, the urge to sleep starting to overcome his better judgment. Just for a second he closed his eyes, but the next time he opened them the lynx was standing over him and pointing the blaster at his head.


	2. Shelter

**_AUTHOR'S NOTES~~~ Hey everyone. Sorry it's been so long since my last update, I haven't been writing too much for my fics and instead have been lazing about, working, and working on my own original work I hope to publish one day once it's finished. Regardless though, I am sorry._**

**_However, since the last chapter was so positively received, Hope Like Ice is a go and I hope you continue to enjoy Raye and Miyu's struggle for survival. Also note that updates for other stories are on the way, that includes ES and Hell series. Thanks again for reading, can't wait to hear what you think, enjoy._**

* * *

The lynx clutched the bullet wound in her lower abdomen. Blood oozed and slipped through her fingers before falling to the ground and freezing. The human didn't even attempt to reach for his gun or resist. He just sat there propped up against the Lancer, bleeding from his chest. At first she thought he'd died and that she hit him in the heart, but that was at least until he opened his eyes. Even as she stood over him with his life in her hands, she hesitated.

There wasn't a trace of fear in his deep black eyes. He looked at her with a sense of understanding and acceptance. It was strange to see something so close to death be so calm. The lynx primed her blaster, so sure that the low pitched whine would ignite the fear within him.

It did not.

"What the Hell is wrong with you?!" Miyu hissed at him to which he replied.

"Fick dich!"

The lynx had no problem figuring out he was swearing at her in his nasty language. Anger enveloped her and she stomped on his injured leg making him shriek. She couldn't stand the language he spoke; it was so rough and made excessive use of the uvula. She watched as the human screamed and clutched his leg, muttering under his breath in the language his kind called Deutsch.

'_I might as well kill him.'_ She thought readying herself to pull the trigger. _'Just do it. You shot him before and he even shot you back! It'll kill you as soon as it gets the chance.'_

The human groaned as he tried started pushing himself up, jerking the lynx out of her inner turmoil and causing her to jump back and start screaming at him.

"Stay where you are! STOP! I'll kill you!"

The black eyed human looked at her but ignored her anyway. He struggled to get up to his feet and his pain filled groans made it abundantly clear it was taking all of his effort and willpower. Once he was up, he braced himself against the Lancer panting heavily but still not making any hostile or aggressive movements. He looked at her again with those rotten eyes and she growled at him.

"Stop looking at me!" She snapped, her grip tightening on the blaster. A sudden surge of pain in the bullet wound caused the lynx cry out in agony. For just a second she looked at it and cringed as more and more precious blood left her body. It was in that second however, that the human struck.

Raye quickly closed the sparse gap between them and grabbed the blaster. Before Miyu had any idea what was happening her weapon was in the hands of the human and pressed against her temple. Her deep blue eyes widened as she stared in horror at the human that was so close to her. He seemed so docile and tame before, but now he was staring deeply into her, a look of hatred and repulsion in his eyes. The human took hold of her muzzle and clamped down hard, but not hard enough to make it unbearable. He held her in his hands and gaze for what seemed like minutes, speaking volumes with his eyes as he could not speak to her with his voice. She saw his hatred of her, his longing to kill her, but also the restraint not to. He forced her with his grip on her muzzle to look down at his wound and it was there she saw why she was still alive.

'_It's not going to kill me… it needs me.'_ Miyu realized just as she was released.

She quickly stepped back and watched the human carefully for its next move, but its next move shocked her.

"Hier." It said as it held out the blaster to her, but to the lynx it looked like he was baiting her into a trap. Why he would do that she did not know seeing as he held all the cards at the moment, but now he was giving her one of his best straight from his hand.

"_Hier!_" It snapped at her when she paused for too long looking at the blaster and the human for signs of deceit.

'_Just take it… if you have the blaster it can't hurt you.'_ Miyu thought as her hand cautiously reached out for the weapon. Her fingers touched the handle that was already being covered in snow. Miyu looked at him one more time and would swear he was giving her a discontented look like he was agitated she was taking so long. The lynx's gloved fingers wrapped around it and she quickly pulled away but made no move to point it at him again.

"So what happens now?"

The human merely grunted at her and walked back to his Lancer before throwing out her supplies onto the snow.

"Wow. Thanks, asshole." Miyu scowled as she fished her belongings out of the knee high snow. By the time she had her bedroll, medical kit, cutting knife, and rations in hand, the human was awkwardly shifting his own supplies in his one good arm. It was evident in his face that he was in constant pain, but it was hard to feel sorry for him with a wound similar to his and a hatred for his entire race.

"Got what you deserved. Shame I didn't aim a bit more to the left." Miyu cackled and thanks to the language difference, didn't get a response from the black haired man.

With his supplies in hand, Raye walked over to where his rifle had fallen and dug it out of the snow with his bad arm. It stung and hurt like all Hell but he wouldn't let a non-life-threatening injury be a hindrance, especially in front of the alien.

Miyu waited for him as he fumbled around his supplies. She made no move or effort to help him and wouldn't even if he asked. She just watched and waited until finally he set off in a seemingly random direction. Not knowing what else to do and in need of medical attention, the lynx decided it was best to follow him, at least until she found the right time to kill it….

'_I've got to find us some shelter. This cold is getting worse and worse, but we might bleed out before that. I'd take my flight suit off and have her dress it now but I'd freeze to death the second I get the zipper half way down.' _Raye thought to himself as he plowed through the snow, searching for shelter.

The sky was already starting to darken even more and the snow fell even harder. Before long the holes that his steps created were almost being filled back up before the lynx could make up the ten pace distance between them. Even without the snow they were moving slow thanks to Raye's bad leg and both their other injuries. Miyu was also limping thanks to a large bruise she got from Raye in their fight, but it wasn't as bad as the human's cut open and a possibly broken leg.

Every time he stumbled she let out a low giggle just loud enough for the human to hear. He didn't do anything so not to agitate their already stressed armistice, but he did let a low line of curses go under his breath.

'_Stupid bitch, she's lucky I need her to clean and dress me so bad- …should have killed her, should have killed her!'_ Raye thought when he stumbled again and the lynx laughed.

Fifteen minutes of searching passed and yielded no results. Raye could hardly see three feet in front of his face and had to wipe the snow off it every few feet. It stung his eyes, numbed his face, and hurt his cracked lips with every flake that landed. His body was so tired that he was barely moving now. He was losing a lot of blood, and it seemed like the weight of this cold world was trying to tear him down. The only thing that was keeping him standing was his hate for Cornerians; especially the one tailing him. Nothing would make him happier than to blow her brains out all over the white snow to give it some color, but they both had an understanding that they needed each other, at least for the moment.

"Putzia noo giri razi?!" The lynx shouted at him even though neither one of them spoke the other's language. From what he could tell by her tone though, he figured she was asking him if he knew where they were going, or she was calling his mother a whore.

"Shut up! Keep your damn mouth shut! I can't stand your annoying voice!" He replied despite his lips cracking open wider and wider with every syllable.

Raye's dark brown eyes looked around but like always all he could find no sanctuary. It was demoralizing to say in the least, and a body running on hatred could only go so far. His wounds were crying out to him, telling him in a loud obnoxious tone that he was in pain and there was nothing he could do about it. To make matters worse, he was starting to feel very tired. He closed his eyes and felt his body instantly begin to shut down and ready itself for sleep. He began to lean back and fall but he snapped out of it and caught himself before he could hit the ground.

'_Damn it! There _has _to be somewhere that we can find shelter and rest.'_ Raye thought as he began to frantically search, hoping to keep himself more awake. He heard the feline shout at him but he kept looking, checking every stone for a secret cave that might save their lives. But as time wore on and the temperature reached the single digits, hope had all but left the man. Thoughts of ending their suffering began to form in his mind, and he wondered if it really would be easier to end his life with a pull of a trigger than to slowly bleed and freeze to death.

Raye looked at the lynx who was hunched over hugging herself and raving like a madman. She didn't pay him any mind when he called out to her, she only went on talking and what sounded like crying.

'_I honestly don't know what I was expecting. We're trapped here with hardly any food, both injured and bleeding, and the temperature is probably well below freezing by now!'_ Raye thought as he watched the lynx fall over in the snow and stop moving.

He dropped his bedroll that he was using as a makeshift sack and walked over to the lynx. Her eyes were still open and he could see the whiff of her breath through the snow. She looked up at him and growled but didn't do anything else. The lynx had given up. It would have been so easy to give up and just fall down next to her; to let the planet beat him and die without a struggle. But as he looked into the lynx's judgmental eyes, he knew she blamed him for this.

"You think this is _my_ fault?" Raye whispered with a shaky and ragged voice as his body was now shivering hysterically. "_I'm_ not the one who started this, your kind…" He began but stopped when he realized how stupid it was arguing with a dying woman that couldn't understand him.

'_If this is the end… I'm not going to be found frozen and lying next to this Cornerian at the very least.'_ Raye decided and started walking off to find his own plot of land to die on.

He found a nice spot to be his deathbed about fifty feet from the lynx's and let himself flop down without bracing himself. Strangely, it felt like i he'd fallen on a feather bed instead of bitter snow. He was so comfortable and was starting to feel tingling warmth, but that was only the hypothermia settling in. Deciding to accept it, Raye let out a sigh and enjoyed his last few moments being alive. The life in his body began to drift away and the embrace of death moved to envelope him.

"Raye."

The human jerked and his heart beat skyrocketed. In a flash he was on his feet and looking around for the source of the voice. It was impossible it was anything but a figment of his imagination, but he let himself hope.

"Hello?" He called out walking blindly through the blizzard. "HELLO!?"

Raye came to a rock that was big enough to hide a family of five behind. His disheveled mind figured this was where it came from and if he was wrong he should just give up and go back to dying. But as he stepped around the rock he found something he did not expect to find on this hellhole; true warmth. The feeling of warmth that wasn't caused by the body and brain shutting down nearly knocked the man off his feet. It was only about as warm as room temperature, but in comparison to the subzero temperatures it was heaven. He immediately flung his body in front of the rock and basked in the heat, letting his body thaw and the snow fall off him.

'_Oh my god, that's so good!'_ He thought to himself when a gust of wind came from the cave and washed across his face, bringing some small feeling back. He let his jaw fall, more blood leaked from his chapped lips but it didn't freeze and bleeding never felt so good.

'_Am I forgetting something? No, of course not… unless… THE CORNERIAN!'_

He'd never felt worried about a Cornerian's life before, but if he was to survive he _needed_ the lynx alive. Raye plowed through the snow in a desperate attempt to get back to the lynx and hopefully save her life. When he reached her, she was almost entirely buried in snow. The only thing that showed that wasn't in snow was her abnormally long, furry tail.

"Hey! Hey, get up!" Raye said digging the motionless feline out of the snow. "GET UP!"

Raye flipped the lynx onto her stomach and without even thinking, put his ear to her face to check for signs of breathing. He didn't even think for a moment about her waking up and biting his ear off, he was more concerned about getting her up and out of the frigid temperatures alive. He had almost given up but then he felt her shallow breath on his ear.

'_She's alive. I just have to get her to that cave.'_ Raye thought and tried to lift her but his body was in no condition to lift and then carry her with a busted leg and a crippled arm. _'Easier said than done.'_ He thought as his arm felt like it was going to fall off when he tried to hoist her up.

It wasn't the best alternative, but it was the only thing that Raye could do now. Grabbing the lynx by the ankle, he began dragging her through the snow back to the cave leaving a lynx sized trench in the snow with a small trail of blood in it. Along the way he came across his supplies and instead of picking them up, he placed them on the lynx and used her like an improvised sled. It took him just four minutes to get back to the cave, but he was flat out exhausted when it was over. His breaths were deep and fast, his heart was beating faster than it should, and his wound was starting to make his vision blur. What was once a non-life-threatening wound had escalated quickly to very dangerous, and if he didn't get it addressed soon then there'd have been no point to any of this.

The warmth from the cave's maw was reprieve enough from the cold world, but the temperature was dropping too quickly for it to be effective outside for very long. He had to venture deeper into the cave, but there was no telling what was in there. Regardless, he had no choice. Their only hope now was to take shelter in the cave, and it was up to him to eliminate whatever was in there.

Sighing to himself, Raye picked up his rifle and did his best to hold it steady. Step by step he crept into the cave. It wasn't a very big cave, but it was tall enough that he didn't have to hunch over, and he was six foot and three inches tall. The deeper he went though, the warmer it became and lighter as well. The hallway of the cave came to an abrupt end and had led him to a rounded ending that was wide open and had a high ceiling. Two people could live in here somewhat comfortably, but Raye didn't intend for it to be two people for too long.

Raye's dark eyes scanned every inch of the cave again for signs of danger but found nothing. This cave was deserted and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. This cave was perfect shelter from the cold outside, yet it was deserted. That meant one of two things. The first was that whatever lived here before was out and about, but he highly doubted that as the weather was so rough now that anything with half brain would realize to seek shelter. The second was that there were no animals, and that would cut their chances of survival with a poison tipped razor….

Miyu's blue eyes slowly fluttered open. The first thing she noticed was she wasn't cold but not exactly warm. She wondered if she was dead and hoped she was so she wouldn't have go on living in this Hellhole covered in bruises and a hole in her gut. She closed her eyes again, ready and willing to die but was never more so disappointed when something started shaking her. Trying to ignore it at first, Miyu rolled over on her side but the thing shaking her was persistent.

"Go away! Just leave me alone and let me die already!" The lynx whined to the uncaring creature shaking her.

Eventually being shaken for so long annoyed the lynx enough to open her eyes and sit up.

"WILL YOU STOP THAT!?" She shouted in the face of the surprised human. He quickly jumped back while the feline growled and hissed at him until the pain in her abdomen returned. Miyu's face scrunched up and she put both hands on her wound. "Ow! Ow… damn you, human." She swore just as something plopped down next to her.

Miyu opened her eyes and saw that the human was sitting relatively close to her, staring at her. Before she could tell him to fuck off, he motioned towards the medical kit next to her.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" She asked picking it up and the human started taking off his flight suit. For a moment the lynx worried about his intentions, but he kept the lower half of his flight suit on and instead took off his blood soaked, green shirt.

'_What is it doing? It can't possibly expect me to…'_ Miyu thought to herself as another surge of pain caught her. _'I can't patch this up myself… I need its help.'_

Sighing to herself, Miyu scooted closer to the human and opened the kit. Looking at the bare chested human filled her with a lot of thoughts and feelings. For starters, she could tell instantly that the human was indeed male and in incredible shape. Regardless, she felt disgusted having to touch the bare skin of the human; it was like nervously touching a snake for the first time. The worst part was its skin was so hot, calling out for her to touch it with her cold fingers and warm herself against it. She wanted to throw up at the thought of herself clinging to the human to keep the cold at bay, but she stopped it halfway up her throat.

It took longer than it should and with a lot of struggle, but Miyu eventually overpowered her disgust of humans to clean and dress the wound. He didn't look at her once the entire time; he kept a solid and stern look seemingly at something a thousand miles away.

"You got lucky this time." Miyu growled under her breath as she just finished. "Next time I won't miss and you _will_ die."

Miyu scooted back from the human once she was finished. The human inspected the job she had done and it seemed to be up to his standards. He looked at her and then the medical kit and started whispering under his breath. It was when he started sifting through the supplies like a child and she realized that he had no idea what he was doing.

"Hurry up! This really fucking hurts!" Miyu snapped, receiving a dirty look from the black eyed man.

His shaking hands grabbed some fresh bandages and a pair of scissors. When he inched closer to her, Miyu let out a loud hiss, stopping him. He looked at her for a moment before she jerked her head towards the medical kit.

"Pick up the rag and the peroxide!" Miyu growled.

It took some time and a lot of growling and hissing before the human finally got the right idea. With her help he managed to grab the right supplies and start dressing her wound. She was lucky; the bullet made a clean puncture all the way through and didn't get caught inside her. It took some time but eventually they did manage to get their injuries to almost fully stop bleeding.

"God I hate you." Miyu groaned as she held pressure on her bloody patch. "You don't even know the basics of first aid; it takes forever to do a _simple_ job!" She rambled on as the human got up and walked away….

'_We don't have many supplies for two people. If it was just me with these supplies I could clutch it out for a solid two weeks. But with her here, our food will only last us a week at best. At least we can melt the snow and have all the water we need.'_ Raye thought as he sifted through their joined supplies.

All together they had two guns, two knives, two bedrolls and blankets, canteens, a week's supply of food, their already used and diminished medical supplies, and the lynx also brought a fire starter kit that would help so much if they could find something that would burn long enough.

'_This cold is not letting up. A fire would keep us from freezing but we don't have any wood or anything.' _Raye thought so himself. _'If it keeps getting colder… our only option would be to- oh fuck.'_

Their best chance and only of survival was to share body heat in the same sheets. The sheer idea both terrified him and revolted him to the point he wanted to vomit. Cornerians were animals, dirty, primitive, and disgusting animals. The thought of having to sleep with one was like rubbing his skin with poison oak. He itched all over and when he looked at the lynx he began to dry heave.

'_I can't! She's a fucking Cornerian!'_ He thought, starting to sweat in the process. _'I'd rather die than share a bed with her.'_

Almost as if the frozen wasteland had read his mind, a knife disguised as the wind shot into the cave and into his heart. Suddenly the thought of freezing to death had become worse than sharing a bed with the lynx.

Just barely….

Miyu sneezed as she huddled in a corner as far away from the human as she could get. The smell of blood made her muzzle wrinkle while the cold caused her to sneeze. She was absolutely miserable, wishing every second that she was back home in her warm bed far away from any nasty humans.

Around her trembling body she had wrapped her blanket in hopes of not dying, but that hope seemed to melt like ice every second. It was slowly driving her mad. No matter what she did she could not get warm. If she stuffed her hands in her armpits her feet would get cold, if she rubbed life back into her toes her ears started to burn. It was a vicious cycle the she could not escape. Tears began to flow down her face that when they dripped down they froze before they hit the ground.

"I hate it here. I hate it here! I wanna die!" She cried quietly to herself.

Miyu sniffled and curled up into a ball. She was already so weak, all she had to do was stop fighting and just let herself drift off. The lynx sighed, so ready to die and get away from this unholy cold, but then a soft weight fell on her body. She opened her ocean blue eyes as a strange scent hit her nostrils. Miyu found another blanket draped over her, and the human towering over her.

"Get away from me!" She snapped at the shivering human. When he tried to lift the sheets, Miyu's heart skipped a beat and she lashed out at him with her dangerous claws. The human shied away while cursing at her. "You're not sleeping with me; I don't care how cold it is!"

He gave her a dirty look and swore at her in his own tongue before trying again. This time, Miyu was determined to scare him off for good. She leapt out of her bedroll and blankets, swinging and using her claws to slice at him. The human backed off but she pressed on, hell bent to grievously wound him and assert her dominance as alpha. Miyu drew in close enough and grappled him to the ground.

They fought and wrestled for several minutes, their bodies inadvertently sharing heat that kept them warm enough to ignore the cold and fight on. Miyu managed to stay on top, trying to claw his eyes out and mark his face with gashes that would turn to scars.

The human refused to let her mar his face however, and held her wrists away with great difficulty as she was a lot stronger than she looked. It was a bitter and merciless fight resulting in many more bruises and scratched on both parties. Their wounds ached and bled more but their stitches and patching held just enough. Time passed and soon there was no light in the cave except from the Cornerian's wrist communicator link device. Both the human and the Cornerian had finally worn themselves out and were now panting on the hard ground. The second their bodies left contact with one another, the cold resumed biting at their skin and fur.

Miyu groaned to herself and was first to get up. She walked back to the blankets and wrapped herself back in hers, but left the human's on the floor.

'_I'd rather die than sleep next to that _thing_.'_ She thought bitterly, cold winds cutting through her thin blanket and piercing on through her. _'I should have put one between its black eyes and been done with it.'_

Raye rose to his feet a few minutes later, having received most of the bruises and lumps in the fight. His eyes caught sight of the lynx curled up struggling to keep warm and the thought of picking up his rifle to put one between her blue eyes occurred to him. The feeling grew and grew in intensity until he was standing behind her with the barrel of his gun almost resting against the back of her head.

'_Do it! Pull the trigger! Kill this animal and skin her! At least then you'll be able to stay warm with a nice, thick, lynx fur coat. All the rations would be yours and if you get desperate enough you could eat-'_ The human thought but stopped when his own mind had grown too dark for him.

It was bad enough that her body was shaped almost entirely like a humans, so the thought of skinning her and eating her corpse to sustain his life was almost as bad as asking him to do that to one of his own kind. He knew though that it was only a matter of time before he started to forget himself, his decency, and rational thinking mind. If times became desperate enough, he _would_ do whatever was necessary to preserve himself as long as possible.

Right now was one of those times already. He could either huddle up in his bedroll and blanket alone and risk dying, or he could wrap himself around the lynx and conserve body heat. Either way, neither option seemed any more favorable than the other. But one of them meant life.

Sighing to himself the human pulled the barrel away from her furry head and instead brought the heavy butt of the gun down on her. The lynx let out a quiet squeak but did nothing but fall down. She landed softly on her bedroll and didn't move. Just to be sure he didn't just kill his meal ticket, Raye checked to see if she was still breathing.

"Lucky me." He said very sarcastically when he felt her breath on his hand.

For the next couple of minutes, Raye worked quickly to set up a conjoined "bed" so to speak. He piled up their two bedrolls together and laid out the blankets over her. Once he was done he slowly crawled in, praying she wouldn't wake up and attack him again. Once he was finally in the makeshift bed however, his body, which was tense and cramping from the cold, started to relax and unwind in the warm sanctuary he had made.

"Why is it this is the only place that's warm on this hellhole!?" Raye nearly shouted in outrage.

The lynx's foul body was almost… calling to him. Heat seemed to flood from her and splash on to him. Time slowly crawled by, and every minute he crept just a little closer like a homeless man huddling closer to a trash fire. He wanted to reach out and grab her, hook her around his arm, and pull her tight against his body. It was a terrible ultimatum, freeze to death or cuddle with humanity's worst enemy.

'_Give me strength.'_ Raye finally thought with a long sigh before his reddening hand reached out to pull the lynx against him.


	3. A Failure to Communicate

_**AUTHOR'S NOTES~~~ Hey everyone. Thanks for all the reviews and love thus far. I know I promised updates for other stories, but I just couldn't stop writing for this. They are still coming though, ES, Hell, and Padawan. Out of thanks for all the reviews last chapter however, I've gone and made this chapter longer than the rest. It's all much appreciated and always drives me to write more and update sooner, so thanks very much again.**_

Miyu awoke rather suddenly but she kept her beautiful blue eyes shut. She didn't want to open them, never again. This hellhole had crushed her under its intensive and burgeoning weight. It was so cold and she hated nothing more than she did the cold. Except for humans.

Instead of getting up, the Cornerian chose to stay still and not get up. She went on wishing she was dead for what felt like hours until her slowed and exhausted mind started to grasp her surroundings.

'_Am I… warm!?'_ The lynx realized suddenly, stirring her whole body and making her feel so comfortably warm across every inch.

Her lithe form bristled in ecstasy of the heat she was now wrapped in. She curled up even more to better conserve the heat, bringing a smile to her dried out lips. Miyu began to purr deeply and kneed her claws out of reflex. The young woman felt so at ease; so safe and secure. Nothing could ruin this moment, nothing at all.

'_It's like I've really died and got sent back to Zoness. It's _so_ warm!'_ The lynx thought pleasantly as she shifted her body to get even more comfortable.

However, when she moved her body she felt something pressed against her back. At first she thought nothing of it, she often slept with a body pillow, but then that "pillow" moved. This confused the lynx and she reached a hand back to feel what it was.

'_What on Zoness is- ew… ew! EW! What is that? What even is that!? It's so smooth and….'_

The first thing Raye noticed when he awoke was a woman screaming. The next thing he noticed was something really hard slam into his nose making it start gushing blood. Dozens of swears lit off from his dry and blood crusted lips as he pinched off his nostrils. The warm sanctuary he had made was ruptured; their shared body heat released and forever lost. Once again the cold took hold of him and the lynx.

"BIR NIYET DEY LOS IGLASI!" The lynx shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Raye's ears rang and he blinked. Before his eyes could open again, he felt a weight fall on him and harsh blows fall across his body and face. He quickly put up a defense, shielding his face from the brunt of the assault. Raye soon became enraged from the pain and launched a counterattack. The human blocked one more hit before lunging his hands at the lynx. He found her warm, furry neck and squeezed. She coughed and let out a gasp but pried his dirty fingers from her throat.

"You damn-" He began but was drowned out by the feline's loud caterwaul.

The lynx bent down and snarled in the human's face. Her muzzle curled back and her sharp teeth glinted off the low light in the room. Before Raye could push her off she lunged at him and bit him right on the neck right where it met the shoulder. The man grunted in pain, and dug his nails into her face. She let out a muffled cry but refused to let go, even when his copper tasting blood seeped into her mouth.

"GET OFF! _GET OFF!_" Raye shouted, his nails digging in and scratching Miyu's left cheek.

Only when a layer of skin and dozens of strands of fur got stuck under his nails did the Cornerian let go. Tears ran down her face and into her four scratch marks making them flare up and sting so painfully. She tried to wipe them away before more could season her wounds but that left her open. Raye immediately attacked her and wound up on top. His hands once more reached for her supple neck and squeezed. He pinned her to the floor and applied more and more pressure….

Miyu swung at the human's face but her blow didn't faze him in the slightest. Her lungs started to prickle and burn, desperate for air. She turned her claws onto his hands, taking layers of skin off but even that didn't stop him. Time crawled by, the lynx desperately tried to get the human off and breathe again, but every moment that passed by with his rough hand around her neck made her weaker and weaker.

She looked up into his eyes. They burned so brightly with hatred and bloodlust they gave them a glazed over look, like nothing but an animal lived in its mind. Miyu whimpered as more pressure was put onto her throat. She hadn't the strength left to put up a fight anymore. The worst part was she could see herself reflected in those deep brown eyes of his, watching herself slowly die.

"Please… don't kill me." She begged as her vision began to become misty around the edges.

The blur soon began giving way to darkness. The lynx let out one last whimper before closing her eyes. She was so sure she was about to die she started cursing the human about to kill her. Her only wish was that she might be able to linger on and watch him freeze, starve, and die. Just before she passed out, the lynx's throat re-opened. She was so shocked she almost forgot how to breathe. Miyu gulped down air through her sore throat and coughed like a smoker when she exhaled because of the raw pain.

The weight of the human lifted from her and she rolled onto her side. She gently massaged her sore throat, sobbing quietly.

"I hate you. I fucking _hate_ you!" She screamed. "One day I _will_ kill you."

Her glimmering blue eyes glared at the human with a vicious rage. When she looked at the human however it looked calm and collected, like it didn't care it had nearly choked her to death. It grabbed the medical supplies and applied a rag to the bleeding bite mark on his neck, and kept his nostrils clamped shut. It looked at her for a moment, their eyes connected, and then it spat on the cave floor.

"What's your problem? Why are you such an asshole!?" She whined, trying to keep the tears out of the scratches on her face.

The lynx knew it was a sign of weakness, crying in front of the human, but she was so overcome with the pain not just in her face, but the still fresh bullet wound, and all the bruises he had given her before ached. After their fight, it had all come running back to her with a vengeance. She curled up and hugged herself, wishing it would all stop and go away.

'_My face… my face. If that asshole scarred my face… it hurts so much.'_ She thought as more tears fell into her scratches despite her attempts to keep them out. _'I need something- a rag of some sorts.'_

The feline sniffed and stood back up. She noticed the human flinch and tense when she did but she ignored him. Instead, Miyu walked towards her medical kit box and pulled out the peroxide and a rag, leaving the painkillers for the moment. The peroxide made her face sting a lot more but she bit her lip and refused to cry anymore, not in front of the human. He was stronger than her but she could still fight him off she knew, but if she showed anymore weakness in front of him she knew he'd take advantage of it.

The last thing she needed was him establishing his dominance over her. She shuddered to think what he might do to her if he felt he had power over her. She had heard horrific stories about humans and what they do to prisoners. There were even rumors of Cornerian women having conceived disgusting hybrid children after been raped by whole platoons of human soldiers. She ignored those stories as she had never seen any proof of a hybrid, and it was stupid to think that humans and Cornerians could conceive a crossbred creature together. She also didn't believe a human would rape a Cornerian, they were different species and species did not find other species attractive.

'_If he touches me again I'll rip his throat out! I'll never stop until it's dead.'_ The lynx promised herself as she cleaned her wounds.

Hours went by without the two talking or even acknowledging the other's existence. They both kept to themselves trying to keep warm and their wounds from reopening. The cold was so great it numbed them from the worst of it, but slowly freezing was hardly a better substitute to the pain.

Miyu kept herself from going mad by thinking of home, the warm beaches, and the endless drinks guys bought her until she was so drunk she had to be carried home by her old friends. She smiled to herself thinking about all the good times she had back home. What she was doing here, she had no idea. Every day she wondered to herself why she became a mercenary when she could have easily just stayed on Zoness, meet some guy with a huge package, and drink and party her youth away.

'_Adventure, money, a chance to see the universe… a lot of good that's doing me now. I should have never become a mercenary! I had never even been in space before I became one.'_ Miyu thought, tears welling up in her eyes again but refused to let herself do so. The human was her enemy, and showing it weakness would give it even more confidence it could walk all over her. _'I'm not weak. I won't die here! He won't dominate me!'_

The cave slowly began to warm up as the temperature outside returned to the double digits and made a small trickle of water dribble down the ice. Inside the cave it was warm enough to not wear a jacket, but that wasn't good enough for the huddling lynx and human blowing their breath into their hands. Both of them wanted to be hot, to savor the heat and forget the cold. It was a cruel joke to have their conjoined bed be the only place that such a heat existed as neither of them were willing to hide in.

"What are you doing?" Miyu asked, finally breaking the long and uncomfortable silence that had iced over the cave.

The human was picking up his rifle and Miyu instantly drew her blaster. It gave her a look but only shouldered the weapon with the strap around his back. The man then walked to the entrance of the cave and called out to her.

"I'm not going out there! It's too cold." Miyu hissed defiantly.

Raye gave her a dirty look and snapped at her with an even harsher tone. "Komm schon dumme Katze!"

"Fuck you!" Miyu snapped and sat down on the hard flat ground….

Raye's nose began to whistle sharply his sore and blood crusted nose. They needed to get out and explore their surroundings for firewood, food, and game. Why she needed to be so difficult was beyond him, especially since he had already beaten her twice. He stomped over towards the Cornerian who was glaring at him every step. When he reached out to grab her and lift her up she lashed out at him. Raye quickly backed off, wanting to save his skin from the razor edged claws.

"Just get up! We need to go outside and look for something- anything that can help us survive!" Raye explained as he pointed at the cave entrance. Yet the lynx stayed right where she was, arms folded, tail wrapped around her body, and glaring at him with her deep ocean blue eyes.

"FINE!" Raye hollered making her ears pin back in pain. "Stay here and sit on your fat ass! I'm going out there with or without you."

With that, Raye stormed out of the cave and into the waist high deep snow. He was so angry and frustrated because of her; he plowed a quarter of a mile long trench in the snow. His leg ached and burned every step of the way. The heavy snow clung to his flight jacket and soaked into it once it melted.

'_What is her problem!? Why does she have to fight me every step? This isn't a game! Our lives are on the line.'_ Raye ranted in his head. _'I can't do this by myself, that's the only reason why that stupid bitch is still breathing! I could have killed her… three times now!'_

Thankfully the snow had stopped sometime in the night, or Raye would have been wading through snow all the way up to his chest. Raye looked around and saw nothing but the rocks standing taller than the snow in the desolate landscape. He limped further away from the cave, making sure to use his senses to observe the land better. Much to his disappointment, he heard, saw, and smelt nothing. The man hobbled back the way he came and regrouped at the cave. He'd been gone for almost a half an hour by his best estimate, and he didn't want to come home empty handed to her judging blue eyes.

'_Why blue? What in God's name did they have to be blue for?'_ Raye thought as her eyes burned out through his skull from the back of his mind. Every time he looked into her eyes he felt sick and weak. If she had eyes of any other color she'd be dead right now by his bare hands.

For the next hour Raye struggled to keep moving through the waist high snow. The cold was locking his joints down making it difficult to move. His chest ached and it was hard to breathe when every breath was like inhaling nails into his lung. Regardless, he focused out the pain and kept his body moving. He had to find something, he _had_ to.

'_I doubt anyone will come looking for me in the next week, even when they do they'll still have to search all around the planet for me and my Lancer. There's not enough food for the both of us to live off of for that long.'_

The human had finally given up and decided to scrounge his Lancer for anything else that might be useful. He felt absolutely terrible. Raye knew how to survive, how to hunt, how to forage, and how to skin animals, but none of that mattered if he couldn't find anything to survive off of. Again the thought of killing the Cornerian crossed his mind but he batted it away. Yes she was annoying, and yes she was probably just waiting for the perfect time to strike, but he refused to let himself stoop so low.

He found the spot where his downed Lancer rested only because of the smell of burnt fuel. The entire thing was covered in snow making him have to dig it out before he could get at it. He only uncovered the cockpit because everything else was just electrical equipment and framing. Raye checked to see if the distress call was still working and was relieved to find that there was still power in the emergency reserve battery. With any luck it would stay powered for a week and broadcast his location.

Raye sighed and searched the cockpit over and over for anything of use. His trip was not in vain however, he managed to find a small one handed fire axe under the seat. The small axe was enough to lift his spirits, which had been sinking by the hour. Of all of man's creations and tools, the axe and knife were the first and most useful. With the axe he'd be able to chop wood, kindling, and punk ass Cornerians that got on his nerves.

Since the seat was less than useless, he decided to cut up the leather chair to use as straps and ropes. He had to take several short breaks while he worked. He'd lost so much blood it was easy to get tired.

"I'm out here doing all the work…" Raye grunted to himself while catching his breath. "She's back inside relaxing…" he gathered all the leather and chair's insulation. "Think I'll beat the sense into her when I get back…."

Miyu let out an agitated growl as she injected herself with another dose of morphine. Once the pain relieving fluid made the bullet wound disappear in her mind, she resumed fiddling with her wrist com device. For two hours the human had been gone and in that time she had been trying to find a successful link to a friendly ship. She only stopped when standing outside got too cold and so she walked back inside the self-heated cave.

Since then she set up her communicator device to decipher the human's language, or at least she had been trying to. The software was new and full of bugs but it was a lot cheaper than buying entire languages for the device. Basically it worked by observing frequently used words, syllables, and phrases then analyzed them until a rough translation was made. The bugs, however, included mistranslations, inaccurate sentence structuring, and sometimes it would overload the CPU and cause the whole communicator to freeze until hard reboot.

"If I _have_ to live with the damn thing, I might as well be able to tell it to fuck off and have it understand me." She said to herself as she booted her communicator up again.

A loud rustle came down from the entrance of the cave. The lynx gasped and drew her blaster but felt a little more at ease when she heard the rancid language the human spoke. A small smile spread across her lips as she realized the human was undoubtedly in pain. Any small displeasure for him was a sweet feeling for her.

"Well, well, well." Miyu purred when the human staggered down the slope of the cave entrance. "Is the conquering hero back from his crusade of burning, pillaging, raping everything wholesome and decent already?"

The human didn't even look at her but she did hear it mutter under his breath. She looked at her com device but huffed when she found it hadn't captured his words.

"Great. Now I have to hear it talk all the time!" She groaned to herself.

The lynx stood up and slowly padded over to the human who was setting down his new supplies. Her curiosity overwhelmed her caution and she walked right up behind him. Feeling her presence behind her spooked the human and he jumped away from her, brandishing his new axe.

"Where did you get that?" Miyu asked feeling entirely calm for some unknown reason to even her. It continued to stare at her like she was feral and about to attack her at any second. "Will you put that away? Seriously!"

"Was wollst du?" The human asked making the lynx's ears perk and eyes dart to her wrist com.

'_Looks like it read… no translation though, it just archived the words.'_ Miyu thought disappointedly.

Miyu took a step back and gave the human the best smile she could. The human flinched. Her sharp pointed teeth sent chills through him and made the bite mark on his neck itch and hurt. He glared at her faux smile and lifted his axe.

"Geht!" It snapped and half swung the axe while pointing at the other side of the cave.

Miyu's eyes dilated and a low growl escaped her throat. She didn't like being threatened; in fact, it was the one thing that always set her off. People could call her every name, curse, and type of whore in the books and she wouldn't bat an eye (normally). Being threatened was like issuing a challenge to her, one that her pride would not let her walk away from.

"What did you say?" Miyu snapped. "Why don't you shove that axe up your-" She began but the human brandished her axe and she hissed at him.

The human started shouting at her in his rough language. Miyu didn't realize it immediately, but the longer he shouted, the more data she was collecting. He only shouted for about ten minutes, but the translator managed to archive over twenty words. The lynx glanced at her device and smirked.

"Oh yeah? Well come on, hotshot! Put down that axe and let's see if you're man enough!" The lynx taunted and swiped at the human. She took a step forward and again he issued her a line of non-understood threats.

'_He seems pretty pissed. Bet if I take another step-'_ Miyu thought taking a small inch forward but immediately leapt back hissing and screaming.

"GET AWAY FROM ME! FUCK OFF!" The lynx shrieked as the human advanced on her, swinging away at her like a psycho-killer.

The human kept coming at her until she was backed up into a wall. All of her anger and hate for him disappeared the instant her tail touched and pressed against the wall. She felt fear and helplessness fill her heart when she pressed against the stone wall. The animal in her took over, kicking her instincts into overdrive. Raye had only meant to intimidate and frighten her, but he had awakened the beast.

Raye's hand lifted to brandish the axe again but that was an opening for the adrenaline fueled lynx. She pounced him, tackled him to the ground and started wailing on him. One blow hit the human so hard he dropped the axe in a daze. He quickly went for the throat but the lynx had learned his tactics and bit him on the finger, threatening to bite it off entirely.

"I'LL KILL YOU! _I'LL KILL YOU!_" Miyu shrieked when she put _her_ hands around _his_ neck.

She squeezed his throat for all she was worth, vying to put an end to the alien's miserable life. The air was effectively shut off from the human's lungs. Raye let out a low wheeze and tried to pry her fingers off, but her hands were like iron claws. Luckily for him, the lynx wasn't content with just strangling him and she started smashing his head into the rocky floor. The first hit he was still awake and fought on, but the second hit left him dazed and hovering on the lines of consciousness.

Miyu finally started to calm down when the human stopped moving. Her hands let go of his soft and fleshy neck. She wiped her gloved hands off on her pant legs and breathed easier. The lynx felt a proud sense of accomplishment upon beating the human. He was stronger, taller, and had a reach advantage over her but she still wound up on top. She let out a triumphant hiss and smacked the human on the cheek.

"You're my bitch now, human." She purred to herself and got off of his chest.

The lynx purred all the way over to the chords of leather and picked them up. She walked back over to the human and took both his hands in hers. Miyu took the longest and sturdiest looking strand and used it to tie his hands together behind his back. Then she tied his legs together and his arm to his legs like a prize winning hog.

"There." She said standing up to admire her work. "That'll keep you from swinging anymore axes and," the lynx kicked the human square in the side making his unconscious body wheeze, "keep you from choking me again, you fucking asshole."

Miyu sighed contently to herself and walked back over the bed. Every time she smelt the sheets, she smelt the human's strange scent, she thought of fir trees and pine needles. It was a good smell for a man, but poorly placed on the human. Thinking of the human made her blood boil and she couldn't sleep easy wanting to claw something's eyes out. The lynx curled up in the sheets and pulled out a small ration bar to snack on and think of her next steps of survival.

'_I can keep him like this until help comes. Should be about a week's worth of morphine but I've got all the food I need, even if half of it is human food, and skinner over there won't give me any more problems now that he's hogtied.'_ She thought smugly to herself and curled up under the warm blankets, the morphine making her even more tired than before.

It was so warm now in the cave that she was able to sleep comfortably by herself without need of the human's body heat. Miyu ran her hands up her body to warm it. She purred from feeling the curves and soft flesh under her flight pants and jacket. It made her forget all her problems and wish her old friend was here. Miyu smiled to herself, still purring loudly as she set in for a sweet cat nap….

'_I am going to kill her. I don't care anymore. This bitch _dies_ tonight!'_ Raye thought as his hands painfully burned from the friction against his bonds.

For the last three hours he had been listening to her sleep so peacefully while he shivered and struggled against his leather shackles. A thousand ideas of how he would kill her played out in his mind, like taking her outside, dragging her by the hair, and looking into her damn blue eyes before blowing her brains out. It was a sick and dark thought, but it made him feel better in a small and pathetic way.

His wrists were rubbed red and raw against the leather. The lynx had done an excellent job tying him up; there was no way he was going to get out without help. All the more reason she was a dead woman the second he was released.

'_Should have axed her when I had her cornered.'_ He thought with a sigh, his teeth starting to chatter. _'She's resourceful and crafty; I need to put her in her place. The second I'm free I'll catch her and beat her and whip her until she's… she… huh.'_

The man suddenly came to a dilemma. Raye could pick her up off the ground over his head and smash her over his knee. He could beat and whip her raw until she flinched and cried at every sudden move he made, but that was where the problem lied. The Cornerian was female, a woman. If there was one thing he hated most, it was men who hurt women and children. His life had been harsh since the day it started. He was lucky to have made it to adulthood and to be blessed with a tall and strong body. To beat the Cornerian submissive because he could was an appalling thought to him. He had hurt her and even tried to kill her before, but that was in self-defense. What he had been planning to do now was something only a monster contemplated.

'_Why did she have to be a woman? If she were male I'd have no problems making it my bitch. Cornerian or not, she is a woman and I can't… I can't hurt her just because I want to.'_ The human thought with a cold stony feeling of defeat in his stomach.

No doubt the lynx would take advantage of his restraint and even think she had managed to intimidate him. It would probably start acting really cocky and try to boss him around but he didn't care. Best thing he could do was ignore her; at least he would once he was free again.

Another hour passed and the human thought he was going to go mad with all the annoying, yet oddly cute, noises the lynx made in her sleep. She sounded like a kitten dreaming in its sleep with all the mewing and whines she made. Raye wanted to shut her out by clamping his hands on his ears but as he pulled he was once again reminded of his predicament.

'_I wonder what it's going to take for her to let me go… will she even let me go? I've hurt her a few times already and I can't promise her I won't do it again since she can't understand me. Would she even believe my promise if she could understand it?'_ Raye thought out and started to realize his chances of being set loose were about as likely as him breaking his bonds.

Finally the lynx began to stir and she let out a long yawn that was annoyingly contagious to the human….

'_Ah… what a nice catnap.'_ The lynx thought to herself as she nuzzled her soft bedroll.

She was warm and that's all that mattered at the moment. She dreaded having to peak her head out of the sheets, but her body started to ache and pressure points were pressed. Miyu yawned and got out of her warm nest, stretching and smiling to herself. The lynx smiled all the brighter when she saw her "captive" still tied up like a baby calf, and looking absolutely miserable. A low purr started within her and as she got out of the nest, she didn't mind the cold all that much.

"Good morning." She said flashing her bright white teeth at the human in a devilish smile. "Have you learned your lesson yet?"

The human looked away from her, grumbling under his breath. Miyu saw this as a golden opportunity to both score some data for her communicator and torture him. The lynx strutted up to the human and bent down to look at him. What she saw did not sit well with her.

"God you're ugly." She said scrunching up her face at him. "Look at you; you've got that weird looking nose, so straight… like a beak. You got some black fur on the top of your head. Your pupils are all round and your irises are bla- …no." The lynx said and leaned in closer for a better look. "Your eyes aren't black, they're… brown. Such a deep brown…. No wonder I thought they were black."

For a while the young lynx stared at the human that refused to look her in the eyes. She tried to resist but she soon found herself being drawn into the deep brown eyes of the human. They sucked her in like with the black holes but held her gently with the warmth of the brown. Her body began to relax and she licked her lips.

'_His… eyes.'_ She thought to herself, falling deeper and deeper into them. _'What am I doing? Why am I still staring? …Stop. Stop!'_

Miyu jerked out of the human's trap and fell over backwards. Her eyes were wide and chest heaving from panting. She swallowed hard but found her mouth had run dry. The feline took a moment to recover, and mentally suppress the unwanted feelings within her. When all the feelings of warmth and safety were gone, the lynx stood up.

'_That was fucked up.'_ The lynx thought as she glared at the human. _'I can't believe I got caught up like that. This asshole choked me- and shot me! There's a reason it's tied up and tame on the floor while I sleep in the warm nest with the blankets and bedroll.'_

Miyu sighed to herself and clutched her wound that was starting to flare up. No matter what, the pain was always in the back of her mind but as long as she kept busy or slept, she didn't notice it as much. Her stomach let out a low growl and she decided it was time for some breakfast, or lunch, or dinner, she honestly didn't have any what time it was any more. She could check her communicator but that would tell her what time it was on the ship, not the planet.

The lynx padded over to the stack of supplies and pulled out a ration bar and her canteen of water. She purposefully walked in front of the human, her food hanging close to his eyes so he could see, and sat down across from him. Miyu sat down in front of him and slowly undid the wrapper. She relished every second of the dry and tasteless ration bar that got its taste from the hunger and suffering of the human. She sniffed it, pretended to savor each and every bite, and took big thirsty gulps of her canteen. She knew the human was suffering by now; she had yet to see him eat or drink so it made it all the sweeter when she heard his stomach growl.

"Oh. What's wrong, skinner?" She purred as she played with the last bite of the granola like bar. "Are you hungry? Are you? I'll feed you if you are. Just tell me you're hungry! Go on! Tell me! Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy!?"

The human of course couldn't understand her or tell him he was in fact starving, but he knew when he was being mocked. Raye casted her a foul and dirty look before moving his eyes to something more interesting, like the wall.

'_All this time and he hasn't said a fucking word!'_ Miyu thought angrily to herself.

If her project was going to work, she needed the human to comply, whether he knew he was or not. As much as she didn't want to talk to him, Miyu knew it was in her best interests to understand what the human was saying.

"Not a chatterbox, huh?" Miyu went on and took a swig of cool water. "That's okay. I can go on and on for days until your ears bleed. You'll talk; I have ways of making you talk…."

Raye's dark brown eyes rolled up into the back of his skull. The lynx was driving him up a wall but he refused to let it get to him. His stomach was eating away at him and his ears were hurting worse than his bullet wound thanks to the Cornerian's constant babbling. He wanted to up and smack her and tell her to "shut the fuck up you fur-ball!" but that was currently out of the question.

The only time she ever seemed to shut up was when he let out an irritated groan or a grumble under his breath. In fact, the second he made a noise she seemed to shut up instantly and hold out her hand a bit. It suddenly occurred to him that perhaps she was intentionally talking to him non-stop, trying to cajole him into talking back with her. With nothing else to do the human decided to test this little theory.

"Oh my god! Do you ever shut up, fur-ball!?" He snapped.

Sure enough, she did.

The lynx waited and waited for him to continue, but when he said nothing else she continued to ramble on. Not wanting her to continue speaking that animalistic and yet soft spoken language, Raye said. "I guess not." To which she immediately stopped talking.

'_Are you kidding me?! Does it really want me to talk that bad? Why would it? Is it that desperate for social interaction? Every time when I spoke before, it hissed or yelled at me.'_

"What do you want?" Raye growled suspiciously as he squinted at the lynx. Her tail started to flick around and that worried him. "Look, I know you can't understand me and this is stupid for me to even try… but if you let me go, I promise I won't hurt you again."

As expected, the lynx didn't take notice of his words for a second. She only stared at that stupid shackle around her wrist; every now and then her blue eyes would dart up at him then back down. Obviously it was doing something, what it was, he hadn't the slightest care to think about. Instead, he decided he'd rather hear the sound of his own voice then that cocky meowing and hissing of the Cornerian.

Taking a deep breath, Raye started his long monologue. First he talked nothing but his hatred for her kind, how he couldn't wait until they surrendered and paid for their got his blood boiling and heart pumping and he knew that wasn't good so he changed topics. For the next ten minutes he talked about sports, random things, and flying. Not once did the Cornerian say or do anything new, she only sat there on the soft nest with that shit eating grin on her face.

Eventually, Raye's voice started to ebb as he'd talked a lot more in just an hour than he usually did all week. Fortunately though, when he stopped, the lynx seemed rather satisfied and laid down on the sheets.

'_At least it's not talking anymore.'_ Raye thought as his eyes began to droop.

He was still very tired from all the fighting, scavenging, and struggling he did today. It didn't help much that he only got a few hours of sleep before the lynx woke up and nearly broke his nose. The man wanted nothing more than to crawl into that nest, kick the Cornerian out, and take a nice long catnap of his own….

Miyu started sifting through the long list of words and common phrases, hoping for a match or translation. She would have been disappointed to find none, had she not cataloged an hour's worth of data. Still, it confused her why she had so many words but no translations. She expected that by now there would be at least one or two words translated by now. The human nearly talked her ears off babbling about nothing.

'_I wonder why I still don't have anything.'_ Miyu pondered in her head. _'The app said it could translate_ any_ language with enough data and time. How much more does it need!?'_

The lynx was about to give up and shut her comlink off to save its power, but then an idea came to her. Miyu quickly returned to the translator's front page and read over the instructions, only to find a key step she had missed.

"This version of Translator XP: FREE can translate any language given enough time and data. To achieve maximum efficiency and translation, one or more words must first be manually translated." The lynx read aloud then wondered how to manually and correctly translate a word.

'_What the hell? Honestly, do I have to do _everything_? It can't just do this on its own?'_ The lynx groaned in her mind.

Miyu stood up and padded over to the human and squatted next to him. She looked at him like he was a pile of mud and hesitantly poked it.

"Hey… hey!" She growled at the human.

She kept poking him until she got a response, but his response was a loud bark and an attempt to bite her finger. The lynx backed up and hissed; clutching her finger like his rounded teeth had nipped her. Miyu was just about to start kicking his face in, but she would get better results with honey then violence. Instead, the feline sat down on the ground a little far from the human despite him being tied up. It was more about minding personal space than caution.

"Okay, look." The lynx sighed. "Maybe we got off on the wrong paw. I shot you, you shot me, we're even on that. You have been… choking me a lot though." She said with a low growl in her throat making the human tense. "That bullshit is going to stop! I'm going to let you a little loose, I'm not taking your feet and hand restraints off, just gonna make it so you don't look like a prison bitch for sale."

The human was looking at her the entire time with quizzical eyes. He had no idea what she was saying and doubted he wanted to. Miyu moved to loosen his bonds but the human started thrashing and resisting against her.

"Hey, st-stop. Stop. STOP!" She shouted and pinned him down. He kept squirming and shouting at her and listening to his gruff voice started to give her a headache. "Alright! FINE!" She snapped and stepped away from the human and sat down on the sheets of the nest. "I was going to give you some leeway, but I guess you like being my bondage slave. Fine by me, I proffer it when you can strangle me with your monster hands anyway!"

For another hour the lynx ignored and shunned the human. It must have gotten the hint eventually because about ten minutes into Miyu's cold shoulder treatment, but by then it was already too late. She kept pretending like the human didn't exist for a good two hours. She was bored enough by then to try again.

"So." She huffed standing back up and walking back to the human. "Care to be a bit more civil this time?"

Raye didn't move but his whole body was tense like he was expecting pain. Miyu's hands slowly got closer until she got an idea. The lynx extended her hand out to the human's nose to let him sniff it. Even though he was an alien, Miyu could tell that when its face scrunched up it was thinking she was stupid.

"It was worth a shot." She scowled.

Gently, the lynx tried to let the human loose a little. She felt like the instant he sensed he was free that he would attack her again. Her heart was pounding, her claws were extended, and she was ready to slit its throat like a hog at the first sign of struggle. Finally the human was able to move, and unexpectedly, remained docile.

"Okay… okay." The lynx said as she made slow movements away.

The human stared at her, holding out his hands expectantly but was terribly disappointed. Miyu held her knife close and made no move to further his release.

"Now then." Miyu said looking around the room.

She wondered to herself what she should use to try to get him to archive a word. Her worst fear was it would say something stupid, like if she picked up a rock he'd say its color. If that happened, there was no telling how awry the translation process would become.

"What should we do? How can I get you to not be so stupid and work with me?" She wondered out loud.

The lynx was about to take her chances with a rock when suddenly it dawned on her. She looked over to the human and for the first time wondered what it called itself. It didn't matter to her before but if she was going to be able to speak to it, so now she couldn't call him it, skinner, asshole, and every other swear in the book. Odds were it wouldn't like that.

"Hey. Hey, human!" The lynx said, trying to draw its attention. It looked at her with a dirty look but she ignored it. Miyu walked back towards him like she would a horse, carefully and without sudden movements. When she was close enough she held out her hand again as a sign of peace. "Yeah… yeah, that's it. Don't do anything stupid, I'm not above beating a man that's bound and shot."

Miyu sat down across from him and gave a fake smile. She got the response she figured the human would give and instead cleared her throat. She pointed at herself with a gloved finger and said clearly and slowly.

"Mii yuu. Mi… yu." She repeated pointing at herself. Much to her disappointment, but not really her surprise, the human didn't seem to get the message. "_Miyu. _I am, _Miyu! _Miyu!"

The human's dark brown eyes blinked.

"Mm… Me… ew?" It stammered out questioningly.

"Holy shit." She muttered under her breath. "Yes! Miyu. Miyu!"

"Me…" It said pointing at itself and then to her, "you?"

The Cornerian growled. "NO! NO! Bad!" She pointed at herself and repeated one more time. "Miyu."

"Miyu." It said pointing at her.

"Very good, I think I have some dog treats I can give you." Miyu said giving him a bright smile.

"Miyu. Miyu." It said over and over, committing the word to memory.

"Uh huh, Miyu." The lynx said, nodding and feeling like she was talking to an infant.

The human nodded back and pointed to himself. "Raye."

"…Raye?"

Saying the human's name was a strange thing. It came so naturally and felt so smooth on her tongue. It was a name she liked straight off; too bad it was attached to something she hated. Regardless, she pointed at the human and repeated his name.

"Raye?"

"Raye." It affirmed, its deep voice making her shiver.

'_Well at least I know its name now. All the good that does- what the?' _Miyu thought and looked down at her beeping communicator. To her surprise it caught the human's name and was now asking for a definition.

"Umm… name?" The lynx said and the communicator chirped before growing a little warm. She waited patiently until the loading bar was filled, when it was, her jaw dropped.

"Eight words!?" She gasped, hardly believing her eyes. Her heart began to beat harder with excitement. If she had already made eight translations with one hard translation, then there was no telling what ten hard translations would warrant.

The lynx scanned the ground and picked up a rock.

"Alright… _Raye_. Class is now in session…."

'_Just what is this stupid cat trying to do? It can't honestly think it's going to be able to learn how to speak my language before help arrives, does it?'_ He scowled to himself as the lynx held up a glove to him and slowly said glove in her own tongue.

The process was slow and tedious by the first hour's end, and they were already in the third hour. He would have clawed his own eyes out because of the sheer magnitude of boring had his hands not been tied together. His wounds started to flare up halfway through but the lynx brought him some painkillers and redressed the wound when she got tired of the constant groans and painful looks he made.

The painkillers did their job well enough; he only wished that he had enough to last for the long months it would take to fully heal. His only hope was for rescue to come sooner rather than later. At this point, being trapped in a Cornerian internment camp was starting to feel like a less abysmal option. He didn't want to be captured, but at least they'd feed him and give him the bare minimum of medical treatment.

What started to bother him though was the lynx. She was shot in the gut and that would usually cause extreme pain in a person, disabling them from moving. His only guess was that Cornerian anatomy was so much more different than human. That is, until he saw the lynx stick herself in the gut with a syringe.

'_Painkillers…'_ The human realized. _'So that's how she stays standing. No matter. It's only a matter of time before she runs out and can't move anymore. Then she'll _have_ to let me go.'_

The lynx let out a long yawn, the morphine dosage was obviously too high for her and her lost blood didn't help matters either. Yet even he himself started to feel sluggish and weary. He wanted nothing more but to get back under the sheets and warm up again. He was even willing to tolerate her presence next to him.

"Tired, Miyu?" The man asked the droopy eyed lynx.

Miyu looked at him and blinked. The human suppressed a sly grin when he saw just how sleepy she was. By the bags under her eyes and droop in her ears, it looked like she was about to pass out any second. By his guess, it was probably only twelve in the afternoon. The lynx eyed the bed and sighed. It was apparent that she didn't want to sleep again so soon, but her head started to bob up and down. She shook her head and yawned again, this one was contagious. Raye yawned with her and grunted agitatedly.

"That's it." The human growled and awkwardly stood up. The lynx yelped and jumped up to her feet while drawing her claws.

A small silent stalemate ensued. Both stared at each other intensely, waiting and judging for a next move. Raye took small and slow steps around her, trying not to spook her. Soon he was standing by the beds and he sat down next to them. Miyu suddenly understood and let out a sigh of relief.

"There you go. I'm not gonna hurt you." The human cooed and shuffled onto his bedroll and under his blanket.

Raye slowly eased down onto the bedroll. It was difficult work trying to keep the sheets from falling off but he was able to manage given enough patience. Already his body heat began to fill the blanket. Raye let out a low sigh of relief. It was the first time today he'd been warm since he woke up, and he loved every second.

The lynx, Miyu, eventually walked over to her own bed but he pretended not to notice. They'd managed to go several hours without any violence, and their bodies were thankful for it. He hadn't gotten any new bruises in a while and he was even able to find some places on his body that _didn't_ hurt.

The cave disappeared to nothing, his eyes unable to stay open anymore. Sleep seemed to be upon him but it was just playing with him.

'_We need all the rest we can get. We've got three or more months of healing ahead of us… but only two or so weeks of food.'_ Raye thought to himself and suddenly felt a little colder in his sheets. _'There _has_ to be something. Berries, animals, fish, I don't know, just something! If we can't find something fast and easy we'll be trapped in bed, starving and bleeding out.'_

Raye thought longer and longer about their current situation. Everything seemed to be piling up against them. There was no game, they were wounded, and rescue most likely had no idea where to start searching. He thought they stood a chance before, now he wasn't sure.

'_She's going to be the only person I'm going to see or talk to for a long time. She's all I got... I'd rather have a dog with three legs and down syndrome!' _Raye scowled in his head. _'At least a down syndrome, three legged dog wouldn't tie me up and shoot me!'_

Miyu's ears twitched with every breath of wind. With nothing else better to do in his wait for sleep, Raye rolled over on his right side. A small smile tugged on his lips watching the adorable tufted ears dance. He had a soft spot for normal cats even if they wanted nothing to do with him half the time. Watching the cat's ears was hypnotic. His eyes again started to close, this time he hadn't the strength to open them again.

'_Things are going to get bad real fast… Miyu. I can only hope you're ready for it, because I don't carry dead wood any longer than I have to.'_


	4. A Sign of Rescue

_**AUTHOR'S NOTES~~~ Hey guys, another chapter Of Ice here. ES is almost done, just needs about 2k more words and I'll post it sometime this weekend if I'm lucky. Also, there's another video I'd like you all to go and watch on YouTube. It's called The Hope of Fools by SuperKikoni, the same guy that composed Hope Like Ice. It's a beautiful instrumental song done on the piano that was inspired by the Hell series and in turn inspired the remaking/Ice series. Anyways, I hope you enjoy and remain as patient for the next updates.**_

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Miyu looked up to the dark grey overcast. Her eyes searched for any signs of rescue but her desperate hope was already turning into a foolish daydream in her own mind. Despite the vanity of hoping for rescue, she kept watching the cloudy skies as it was an excuse to get out of the cave. She hated to admit it, but she was starting to smell. Her own scent made her muzzle wrinkle and she would love nothing more than cleanse her body with hot water and soaps.

Yet the worst part of it all was the human's smell. His scent followed her everywhere as it had been absorbed by her soft fur and rugged clothes. It mixed so perfectly in with her own scent as if they were a couple. Smelling their combined filthy scents made her want to throw up and she would if she had eaten anything in the last twenty four hours.

As much as she wanted to eat, she knew that the remains of the week's worth of food needed to be rationed as delicately as possible. Every time her stomach growled she thought of how callously she ate her first meal in front of the human. She wished she had those ration bars back now, at least maybe then she'd have eaten yesterday. Her stomach was hurting so much from hunger that it was hard to tell sometimes if it was her bullet wound that was actually hurting. Only when she tried to move and came close to tears could she tell or not and have to use more of the little amount of morphine she had left.

More and more snow fell and began to pile up on her body, threatening to coat her entire body. The feline shivered and shook the snow off and let go a sneeze because the cold tickled the sensitive depths of her nose.

'_Great! Now I'm getting a cold.'_ The lynx thought before another sneeze escaped.

"Damn it!" She cursed and stormed back down inside the cave. "Six days! Six whole days stuck on this horrible planet and no sign of rescue." She said as she stepped back in the rather warm cave. "But do you know the worst part? The worst part, is sitting here with YOU! You of all people! It's like none of the other humans could stand you so they dropped you off here with me!"

The human only looked at her, still in bed, hands free of his leather binding. For the first couple of days all he did was lie in bed and not help her with anything in the slightest. As hard as she tried to get him to help, he refused to move from his spot unless he needed to relieve himself or eat some of his food. This made it hard for her because it fell onto her to explore, search for food, firewood, or animals to hunt. Every time she went out though, she felt exposed, threatened, in constant danger. She couldn't find anything but snow and rocks and after days of search and she had finally given up on finding anything on this barren wasteland.

Only when she finally felt he'd learned his lesson enough and cut him free did he actually start doing things, though insignificant and unhelpful. They went out on scouting trips together but that was like playing a game of chicken to see who would snap and shoot the other first. Often she wished she just kept him tied up because she doubted she'd be able to tie him up without beating him into the ground again, something she had far too little energy to do anymore.

"Why don't you get up and do something?" Miyu nagged, only getting a blank look as a response. "Don't look at me like that! I need your fucking help here!"

The human waited a moment before shrugging and returned to whatever distant daydream it was in before she came in screaming. That only aggravated the lynx more and she was so tempted to start hitting him like a disobedient pet, only less humanely. She'd make him flinch at the sight of her and turn him into the cave bitch.

Miyu growled in her throat stepping over to the human to beat some compliance out of him, but then her stomach growled. Her strength began to ebb as the trifecta of fatigue hit her. Miyu wasn't just exhausted from hunger, but lack of sleep, and constantly being on edge with the human sleeping just a few inches away from her. She often woke up in cold sweats thinking his hand were on her and molesting her, but every time she woke up she was relieved to find the human quietly sleeping on his side of the nest.

'_I'll beat him later.'_ Miyu concluded and went over to her rations to pull out a small snack.

She opened up the wrapper to find a bland granola bar that would swell in her belly with a bit of water. It'd keep her sated for now but she wanted food, real food. The words diet, calorie counting, and self-restraint would be launched out the airlock to be replaced with engorge, buffet, and new pant size.

Slowly she bit into the bar; attempting to eat it like a lady, but when she swallowed and the first bite hit her empty stomach she tore into it like a starving animal. By the time she was finished, Miyu desperately licked the plastic wrapping for any hidden crumbs. The crumbs, though meager, were a god's send to the hungry lynx. Her stomach growled and begged for more but she had to begrudgingly refuse it. She only had three days of rations left and the small wrapper was once her fourth. The lynx considered herself lucky and was extremely proud of herself because she had spread her rations out even longer than normal. It had already been six days and her food should be running out tomorrow.

The human on the other hand, was the very definition of miserable. He ate even less than she and his stack of food was much larger than hers. Eating so little was making him irritable, snappy, and hardly talkative anymore regardless if she tried to drum up a conversation with him or not. Her library of his language was sitting at sixty four percent complete and all she needed was just a couple more hours of dialogue until the translator would work. Yet even without the translator she was starting to understand him more, not much but enough.

It seemed however that the less food they had the less they fought. Only a few short days ago it seemed impossible but because Raye and Miyu kept to themselves, huddled in their own respective corners making no effort to talk or even make eye contact, a quiet armistice had ensued. When the temperature finally dropped low enough they'd get up with a sigh, meet each other at the nest, then shiver and be miserable since their bodies refused to get close enough to share their heat efficiently.

'_I'm so hungry.'_ Miyu thought bitterly, the saliva lined wrapper falling from her hands to the floor. _'When I get off this hellhole, I'm going to stuff my face until I can't fit in any of my old clothes! Right in front of the human too! He'll have a little bowl that the crumbs fall into and have to lick them up. God I hate him. I wish he'd just die already so I can take his food.'_

Miyu went on rambling to herself for a long time. It was one of the only things keeping her sane since she had no pleasant company to talk to. She hadn't any forms of entertainment, not even any games or apps on her communicator so raving and ranting quietly to herself was just about all she could do.

A sharp gust of wind charged into the cave, blowing on the wrapper and making it dance around Miyu's feet. While the wrapper danced, the lynx shivered and sniffled. It was so cold out and she had forgotten her blanket back at the nest. She wanted to get up and grab it but that was easier said than done. All of her painkillers and morphine were practically gone and the simplest thing like sitting up was pure agony. Despite her wounds staying closed and luckily without infections, the pain it caused stopped her from doing the meekest movements such as walking or sitting up. If the human wanted to, he could overpower her with hardly any resistance, and she'd be at his mercy.

'_He's probably as weak as I am, he hasn't eaten in days.' _Miyu thought rather optimistically. _'Even if he tried to ra- …to hurt me, I can probably fight him off with my claws.'_

The lynx's blue eyes carefully looked over to the human. It had drifted off into space some time ago and hadn't moved a muscle since. If she didn't know any better, she'd have thought he was dead but last time she thought that it turned out he was alive and didn't like her touching his food.

'_I thought you were dead! You didn't have to be so pushy and try to chop my hand off… asshole.'_

Another three hours passed and the cave had started to warm up. The ice hanging from the ceiling at the mouth of the cave was starting to melt and drip. Small puddles formed under each of them slowly growing until a large single mass was formed. Before long the dripping was audible and making an annoying and sloppy music fill the cave. Miyu's inner monologue was soon drowned out by the dripping and her ears flicked agitatedly.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

'_This is hell- a nightmare! This is a nightmare and I can't wake up.'_ Miyu thought, wanting to do something about the dripping but her painkillers had worn off and she was now rooted to her spot.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Miyu tried to stand up but her horrible wound denied her. She was forced to lie down and clutch the pain out as the god awful dripping sound continued.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

'_It's getting worse.'_ The lynx realized and looked at the bandage when she pulled up her shirt. _'Who am I kidding? A simple patch job isn't going to do shit! I need surgery, I need a doctor!'_

Drip. Drip. Drip.

'_I'm not going to last much longer…. If this wound doesn't kill me, the cold will, and if that doesn't get me, I'll starve to death, and if all else fails the human will undoubtedly try to cannibalize me! So either way I'm fucked!'_

Drip. Drip. Drip.

'_A quick death is preferable. Put it up to my temple, pull the trigger, die in as little pain as possible.'_ The lynx thought mournfully as she began to seriously contemplate suicide. _'It's been two weeks. Everyone probably already thinks I'm dead.'_

Drip. Drip. Drip.

'_I'd…'_ Miyu thought as she grabbed the blaster at her hip and stared at it, _'I'd hate to disappoint anyone….'_

"I CAN'T TAKE IT!" Raye suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, shaking half the cave and startling the lynx so much she nearly jumped out of her fur.

Raye jumped up to his feet and hobbled to the cave entrance. He grabbed his rifle that was propped up next to the entrance, and used the butt of it to smash the two, three, and sometimes four inch thick icicles. Chunk after chunk of ice flew to the ground until the icicles were little more than stubs. Raye reached up high to get the roots but had already started to pant. His right arm smashed the butt against one of the roots and his bad leg buckled. He fell to the hard stony floor and let out a painful groan.

The lynx Miyu did not come to his aid which he didn't know if he proffered or not. As much pain as he was in, his pride would hurt worse if she helped him in any way. Slowly he rose back up to his feet, still panting and hurting all over, and trekked back to his corner of the cave. The dripping noise had ceased thankfully, albeit his body and pride were hurting.

'_My fucking leg is killing me!'_ Raye thought when he was sat back down.

His whole body was tense trying to suppress the pain and painful groans he wanted to make. Weakness was not a commodity he had at the moment to show. The lynx was most definitely plotting something, wondering when she would strike next. She was a plotter, a schemer, a snake in the grass.

'_She probably smells the blood… and the infection.'_ Raye shivered as he looked down at his leg.

Two weeks ago he fell and landed on his leg. The sharp rocks tore through his flight suit and pants then right through his skin. It looked no more serious than a scratch, but as the days went on the color around it darkened and pain only got worse. He tried cleaning it multiple times with water and what little they had left of the peroxide, but it still continued to degenerate.

'_I didn't know legs could turn green.'_ Raye thought to himself, wanting to wretch at the sight of the multicolored and flaming red scab just above his ankle.

Walking had become a chore. Often when he walked he barely put any weight on his bad leg and immediately took the next step to spare himself from the worst pain. Just going from one side of the cave to the next made his jaw clench and eyes water.

Another hour slowly passed by. The cave had warmed up to actual comfortable levels in that time, piquing the human's curiosity. His teeth nearly ground down to stubs by the time he forced himself back to his feet and to the cave entrance. As he hobbled forward, something made his skin feel like a thousand little insect legs were marching on him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw it was the Cornerian making him uneasy but he ignored her.

"It's warm out." Raye muttered aloud as a soft warm breeze brought some feeling into his face. His cold fingers rubbed his lightly bearded face, something he was not used to as he shaved almost every day for the last four years.

"Soorta diez?" The lynx chirped as he stepped up the slow incline to the cold outside world.

"Shut up." Grunted the agitated human.

Raye stepped outside for the first time since yesterday and was surprised to find that the environment was changing. He let out a low sigh and was surprised to barely see his breath. The snow all around him was starting to shrink and melt. At first he foolishly began to hope that the planet was starting to undergo global warming.

'_Why is it so warm today? It's been so cold everyday… but not today. Why-'_

"BON LIAH!"

Raye felt his body lurch forward and his balance fail him. He fell face first into the wet snow feeling extremely pissed and hurt. Something fell on him and the added weight combined with the fall brought all of his injuries screaming back to him. As much as he wanted to pummel the lynx for tackling him, a loud roar that started to deafen him ripped the silence of the land. What came next was even worse than the noise. A rushing wind rushed across the white plains, so hot that it melted the snow revealing a moldy green colored grass that looked trampled under the snow's weight. The hot air hit them and was so hot it was like they'd stepped into an oven. Miyu's fur began to singe a little and Raye's face felt like it had just gotten the worst sunburn of his life.

Yet despite the loud pitch, high volume, and intense heat, Raye realized what it was. The Cornerian's friends had finally arrived….

Miyu grimaced as a painfully loud noise rang in her ears and left an annoying whine in its wake. The heat wasn't so bad and when the Cornerian Cruiser class ship passed overhead the planet's typical cold was welcomed for once.

She panted heavily as her heart beat like she'd ran a thousand miles to get here. Miyu had heard the ship coming and was so excited that she forgot her injuries to rush outside and hail it down. Just as she stepped outside she knew something was wrong. One look at the ship and the dark black smoke trail behind it and she knew it couldn't be good. Then she saw the human standing around as if he wanted to be in the way.

There was no explanation or reason for it, yet here she was, on top of the human and shielding him from the blast.

'_What am I doing? I should have let him get blasted by the exhaust!'_ Miyu thought and began to question her mental sanity.

Before she was able to dwell on it too long, she felt the human's body tense and rise. She slipped off of him and he struggled to his feet. Miyu was about to get up to but her pain filled world came rushing up to her keeping her rooted to the ground and unable to stand up. The human seemed not to notice her and stared off in the distance where the ship had flown off to.

"Hey… hey! I need your help." Miyu muttered as she struggled to even roll over to her side. The human continued to take no notice of her existence. "Please. It hurts so bad- I… I can't get up."

Miyu's eyes began to wet and for the first time in two weeks she did not quickly cover them up and wipe them away, and why should she? There was no hope now. The humans had no doubt shot down her rescue and were now on their way to purge any of her kind that might have survived. Raye, the biggest asshole she'd ever had the displeasure of meeting, would get to go home and put this horrible planet behind him. Not her though.

She'd stay here.

Rot here.

The human seemed to finally notice her and looked down at her shame turning her eyes and face away from his. Tears were welling in her eyes from the horrid pain in her body and she didn't want him to see them. She pretended to sneeze and then wipe her muzzle but it was a small ploy to discretely wipe the wetness from her eyes.

The proud lynx turned back to face the human, this time without much cause to feel humiliated. She watched with poisonous gaze as the human's lips curled at the edges. He made a noise that sounded like laughing but she found it hard to see what was so funny.

Miyu opened her muzzle to snap at him but finally the human had enough of tormenting her and he offered her his hand. Wanting to bite every one of his gloved fingers off, Miyu took his hand and he nearly pulled her arm off. The lynx let off a small squeak as her body lifted off the ground with such ease for the human. Their bodies collided with a muffled thump removing any air left in Miyu's lungs. She gasped, staring into his eyes without any idea what to do. His grip on her hand could break it if its grasp tightened any more but at the moment was being gripped so gently.

'_What is he doing? What is he thinking?!'_ Miyu desperately wanted to know as their unbroken eye contact lasted longer and longer.

The human seemed not as threatening as he stared into her eyes like a mindless drone does a painting. Its eyes seemed glossy and reminiscing; too busy to remember what he was staring at.

Eventually it became too awkward for Miyu to handle.

"Um, could you let me go, asshole?" She muttered, breaking the strange trance the human fell under.

Her hand suddenly felt the bite of the frozen world again, no longer encompassed by the human's. She felt slightly relieved but at a loss of what to do next. Fortunately, the human did.

"HEY!" She hissed, nearly falling back down to the snowy ground when the human's hand shoved her by the face.

Raye only laughed at her as she struggled to remain standing and then keep from starting another fight. He was always so cruel to her, and that last stunt only reinforced her hate for him. If she could only talk to him and tell him how much she hated him she'd feel a little better, even a little satisfied, but that wasn't the case. If she turned on the translation function now it'd be like talking to a child while surrounded by a cluster of static and alien words.

No. She could wait and bottle it all up until that graceful day when she blasts him for every misdeed and reasons why he and his kind were the under scum of the galaxy….

'_Eh… that might have been a bit much. She's learned her lesson by now though and hasn't started a fight so that's something.'_ Raye thought as his feelings began to rift over what he had just done.

What started out as a kind gesture (after enough sniggering and smirking at her expense) turned in to a childish ploy that he wouldn't stoop so low to do if she were human. Tormenting her was his only source of fun though, and he would go insane if he didn't have something to do.

Shrugging his inner quandaries away for now, Raye limped past the piercing blue eyes towards the cave. Once inside the somewhat warm confines of their home, Raye quickly set to work packing his gear. He'd almost finished by the time the Cornerian decided to come in out of the cold, and when she did she started ranting and raving like she always did.

It was strange but over the course of time he'd spent living with the Cornerian, he'd started to pick up small but very common phrases and words when she spoke. Most notably were the words "Shineja" and "Grudder." Often they were spoken on their own or put somewhere in a long string of words. It was his educated guess that it was some sort of curse.

'_Quite a mouth she's got. Glad I can't understand it, it would only cause problems anyways. Imagine not only having to hear her but be able to comprehend her!'_

In five minutes he had everything he owned was wrapped up in his bedroll and leather cords from his chair fastened around it to form a strange looking backpack. It wasn't heavy but it was hard to carry because the grip was hard to keep and the weight would shift against the grip. Raye picked up the small pack and put it down by the door. He turned around and found the Cornerian staring at him like she always did.

'_What is it thinking? What is it planning? Why must those piercing eyes follow me everywhere and watch every little thing I do…?'_

'_Jerk-face. Just what are you doing anyway? Wait-'_

"You can't be serious!" The lynx gasped, watching the human limp to the cave entrance and put his supplies down. He looked at her with his cold dark eyes and leaned against the wall with his arms folded. "You aren't expecting me to walk out there? I'm in enough pain as it is! I wouldn't last a day out there."

The human only stared at her while she explained how she was in no condition to travel but her pleading words were white noise to him. His heavy brown eyes bore down on her making her feel even more alone. Even though he was here and was his only companion on this wasteland, the human cared nothing for her and would have her march to her own death.

"Do you understand?" Miyu begged as she clutched her aching wound. "I'll _die_ out there! My wound will open up again and I'll bleed to death if the cold doesn't take me first. Not only that, but what if we don't find shelter again before the sun goes down? We'll both die and what good will that do?"

Even if Raye could understand her, she knew he wouldn't listen regardless. His eyes bore not just a cold disdain and apathetic look, but also an under glint of determination. It was obvious to her that it hurt him to even stand but there he was, standing at the maw of the cave waiting for her to pack up to leave.

'_He isn't going to take no for an answer…'_ Thought the lynx with a cold shiver running down her spine when she noticed him slowly reach for his rifle. The human cared nothing for her, his fingers on the barrel of the rifle proved that.

"Fine." Miyu hissed and began picking up her supplies and slamming them into order….

'_There's a good kitty.'_ The man thought smugly to himself watching the lynx pack her meager possessions like he had done.

His hand left the barrel of the rifle and he leaned his back against the rocky wall. Watching her work was rather informative as he got to inspect her a bit more… in depth. Normally he kept his looks at her to short bursts in fast intervals. They were suspicious looks only made to keep constant tabs on her at all times. Now however, he was able to see the Cornerian's form as her baggy flight pants were stretching tightly against her thighs and backside.

Raye's shining white teeth scraped across his dry lips the longer he watched. His eyes ran up and down the length of her legs and rear, momentarily forgetting just exactly what he was looking at. All he could see was the shapely curves of a woman, a rather attractive woman. It had been a long time since last he had the company of a woman.

'_Those legs…'_ He thought with a low growl like moan in his throat. Images of his hands running up and down the thighs of a woman began to play in his mind until a slight stir began under his flight-suit. Before the disturbance could manifest he crashed back down to reality when a spotted and fluffy tail swung in front of his view.

His face turned green and his stomach released everything it had giving his mouth a bitter taste. He hunched over to coat the floor with his vomit but only a small string of spit and puke fell.

'_That was disgusting. I can't believe I… about her… her of all things!'_ Raye thought as his stomach continued to heave out inexistent substances of his belly.

By the time Raye's stomach stilled and his face brimmed with a red shame tint, the lynx had finished her packing. She tied her rather light pack up and stood up.

"Beeth da neserum olado." It hissed at him while walking over to where he stood. Raye tensed as she drew closer and closer but she stopped just a step from him. He'd only just begun to learn to understand her but the dirty look she was casting him was unmistakable. Her ears were curled back, eyebrows furrowed, and eyes so deadly it was like they had become a blue colored poison.

"So pretty." He scoffed and shouldered past her which wound up hurting him more than her but he refused to let it show.

The sun was shining bright enough to make a small section of the clouds glow just above the far off horizon. Morning was half way through he guessed which gave them approximately nine hours to cover some distance, find shelter if necessary, and hopefully find the damaged Cornerian craft.

Raye's plan was simple, kill any and all survivors and the lynx if she gets in the way, raid the ship, take all the supplies, and hopefully find something to stop or at least slow the spreading infection. Best of all, the odds were in his favor that a human ship would sweep the area and find him. It would be a long trip made longer by his injuries, but it was the best chance he had.

Miyu joined him outside only a moment later. A whining growl in her throat was barely audible but it sounded like a mix between anger and pain. Raye rolled his eyes and started his long trek towards where the ship disappeared to. His ears heard the sound of footsteps in the snow behind him and every now and then a painful hiss or gasp escaped her.

'_What a bitch. Every step I take hurts like someone's jabbing a knife into me! Just shut up and deal with it.'_ Raye wanted to say but he knew that thinking it would have the same effect on her as speaking.

The strange duo forged a path through the knee high snow. Miyu followed close behind letting Raye clear the path for her. Raye kept moving forward ignoring the pains and complaints his body had, but after a mile even his mental focus couldn't suppress the pain and its wailing.

'_Is she still following me?'_ Raye thought looking behind to check on the lynx.

Miyu had fallen behind but she was still trailing him. Her hands were both clutching her belly and her ears were pinned back. It was a pathetic sight to behold, like she was about to fall over and start crying like a little child any moment now. Even at a distance he could see the marks on her face tears left as they rolled down her face. As much as he wanted to laugh at her suffering, he couldn't. She was fighting like hell for her survival and like him, refused to give up even if the pain was excruciating.

'_I'd hoped to make it a little farther than this…'_ Raye thought with a sigh as he took off his pack and set it down in the snow….

'_Just a little further… just a little further, Miyu. Keep walking. Please!'_ The lynx begged herself as she struggled to lift her legs as every movement caused her guts to burst into agony. The fact that she even made it this far was a miracle and her wounds staying closed was unbelievable.

'_Maybe if I stop and rest? Take a little breather then maybe I- what is he doing?'_

Raye dropped his pack into the snow and turned around. It pulled a long, yellow, cylindrical tube with a pointed tip at the end out of his pocket. Miyu's heart started hammering in her ears. The human had never looked as threatening as he did now. She was so tired and pain wracked that she couldn't put up a fight anymore. With every step he made her heart threatened to give out. The lynx reached for her weapon.

'_I have to kill him before he kills- NO!'_

Before Miyu could grab her gun the human grabbed her and turned her around. His arm wrapped around her and as she screamed his hand covered her mouth to silence her. Panicking, the lynx opened her mouth wide and bit down on his hand between the thumb and index finger. Raye grunted but didn't let go or stop.

"Ugnh!" The lynx moaned when she felt something press against her stomach and shoot into her.

It hurt like a dozen mosquitos had bitten her in the same spot simultaneously, but just as fast as it came it was substituted with a warm numbing feeling. Her whole body began to relax and pain became an afterthought to the now comfortable woman. Miyu's teeth that had been sinking into Raye's skin stopped. Slowly she released his hand and when her mouth was open he pulled away. A generous amount of saliva clung to his hand but the human wiped it off on her shoulder. Despite that, the lynx still looked into his deep brown eyes and whispered.

"Thank you."


End file.
